Slovenia to float 50 pct of NLB bank on stock exchange by mid-June

Reuters Staff

2 Min Read

May 15 (Reuters) - Slovenia's largest bank Nova Ljubljanska Banka (NLB) said on Monday it plans to list on the Ljubljana Stock Exchange by mid-June and issue global deposit receipts in London, as part of the government's privatisation programme.

The European Commission last week approved the proposal to list NLB and the International Monetary Fund in March urged the euro zone country to speed up privatisations, especially of state-owned banks, saying that would improve productivity and increase potential economic growth.

The government has said it will sell at least 50 percent of its shares in NLB in the IPO, through its holding company Slovenski Državni Holding (SDH), and sell another 25 percent stake in a second IPO by the end of 2018.

NLB said about 10 percent of the shares on offer this time will go to retail investors in Slovenia, and 90 percent will go to institutional investors.

NLB had total assets of 12.1 billion euros ($13 billion) as of March 31. According to local media reports the government expects to get at least 1 billion euros from selling 75 percent of the bank.

It had originally planned to sell the 75 percent stake in one go but then decided on two sales in order to get a better price.

Slovenia has been reluctant to sell its major banks so the government still controls about 40 percent of the banking sector. However, it sold the country's third largest lender NKBM to U.S. investment firm Apollo in 2015 and sold several smaller banks before that.

NLB said on Monday that proceeds from the IPO would be used to shore up the country's budget.

Deutsche Bank AG is acting as sole global coordinator, as well as joint bookrunner together with J.P. Morgan Securities Plc and UBS Ltd. ($1 = 0.9131 euros) (Reporting by Esha Vaish in Bengaluru and Marja Novak in Ljubljana; Editing by Susan Fenton)